Tools

Vine Is Finally Now Available as an Android App

Nearly six months after its launch on iOS, Twitter has finally made Vine available for Android. The six-second video sharing service is available for Android smartphones now, and is a free download for anyone running Android 4.0 or higher.

Vine for Android shares many of the same features as its iOS counterpart, including easy video creation with automatic playback and sound, popular and trending posts, and the ability to find friends. However, things like front-facing camera support, search, mentions and hashtags, and even Facebook sharing are missing.

Those features won’t be missing for long as Twitter plans to add them in the coming weeks. The Android version also has something that iOS users don’t: the ability to zoom while recording. There’s no word on whether this functionality will be added to iOS, but the company did allude to there being more features that could only exist on Android.

Over the past six months Vine has quickly become a popular and valuable marketing tool. Since its launch in January, the video sharing service has amassed 13 million users on iOS alone — according to Twitter. If Vine is anything like Instagram — which saw a million new users in 12 hours as a result of launching its Android app — its user base will likely grow quickly, giving marketers a huge opportunity to reach a whole new audience.

That said, everything you share should have purpose. Don’t rush to publish something if your only goal is to capitalize on Vine’s popularity. Talk with your creative team and share something that aligns with your messaging as well as your overall marketing goals.

Jennifer Beese: Jennifer Beese has worked as a community manager and social media strategist. When she’s not writing, you can find her studying anatomy and physiology—she literally has a skeleton in her closet—or under the stars with her telescope.